| September 1, 2020 -- As we are entering the Fall season, September is a month of fairs and festivals throughout Connecticut. Unfortunately for this year, all fairs have been canceled until 2021. The Big E in West Springfield, MA, where so many of our Grange members work in the New England Grange Building has also been cancelled until 2021. Let’s hope next fall we can all get back to normal and our Grange fairs and country fairs will be held.
On Sunday, August 16 we had our second Officers, Delegates and Deputies virtual meeting. This time we invited the delegates to participate in an informational Zoom meeting. There were 28 members that participated in this meeting, which I thought was very good for the first time trying to get together with our delegates for the upcoming State Session. Please see the State Secretary’s announcement on this page for changes to the format of the Session. We reviewed the agenda for the day and there was some discussion on the voting for officers and how we are planning to conduct the resolution process. If there are 10 resolutions or less we will bring them to the floor for consideration during the State Session. If there are more than that, we will have to conduct
committee meetings via Zoom prior to Session. All resolutions should be sent to the State Secretary by September 15th. All resolutions (other than those submitted by a Session Committee) received after that date will be sent back and they can be re-submitted for next year. One delegate suggested that we set up one or two Grange Halls in each Pomona for the delegates that do not have the means to use Zoom. To do this a Grange must have WiFi capabilities. Michelle DeDominicis offered Hillstown Grange to be one of the sites that delegates could use. All social distancing protocols should be observed at these “gatherings” and they should also not exceed the Governor’s Executive Order for capacity. At the time of this writing, we are limited to 25 people indoors. So if you would like to go to Hillstown Grange for that day, please contact Michelle DeDominicis. If there are any other Granges that have WiFi accessibility and would like to let delegates use their hall, please let the State Master or Secretary know.
A third Zoom meeting has been scheduled for September 13 at 7 P.M. This will be another informational meeting to get prepared for State Session. If anyone has any questions, please send them in before Sept. 13. We will answer them that night. Questions can be sent to the State Master or State Secretary. I thought we had excellent participation with lots of questions at the meeting. I am looking forward to our next meeting. Thank you all for participating.
Like I mentioned at our meeting, this is all new to us and we are doing the best we can to get through it and have our State Session. So please bear with us and we will get through this together.
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